cif73

The only thing I disagree with in an otherwise truly excellent post. I think the time has come for fans, who love the club, who genuinely want a club around still to support, to renew season tickets and buy merchandise again. The club has been and still is in an existential crisis. It should be fully appreciated that It had suffered losses in several millions ... millions ... before Morrison and Gardiner had even entered the stage. It had been propped up by a series of benefactors who generously committed to equity in the main more than debt. Any informed reader of the publicly available annual accounts can decipher that fairly easily. To withhold while Gardiner is working his notice is utter foolishness. He has made mistakes but in the immediate / short term, we desperately need someone available / on hand who has had a central working knowledge of the organisation to facilitate the changing of the guard/restructuring phase. I, for one, will not stand by inactive and watch my club die. Season ticket renewed.

Yes. Exactly. Astonishing. ICT has been on a precipice for a long time (as many years' annual accounts plainly show) ... long before Gardiner ever came to Inverness. Rightly or wrongly, he has become a paria targeted by the suffering multitudes, thirsty for blood and looking for a scapegoat. Look, I'm sure Gardiner has made mistakes but remember that the recent club sugar daddy fan and chair Morrison (while under the interrogation on the Wyness Shuffle podcast) remained adament that Gardiner brought valuable skills and knowledge to the table. With his boardroom position, Morrison had the inside take on what Gardiner has really been like and what he is capable of / responsible for. Generations of experienced, board members and directors have all been unable to financially make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Fanpower has very effectively got the reversal of Kelty and the chairman to fall on his sword. However, chaos probably now ensues. "Be careful what you wish for" is a phrase currently ringing in my ears. Several months from now, it'll be interesting to see, with hindsight, whether the knock-on effects of this week's "fanpower" will be looked on with regret/remorse or vindicated enthusiasm.

Thanks for the detailed response, Charles. The accumulated losses from the very start to date is something shown in every set of ICT company accounts submitted. It's a figure in plain sight near the bottom of the balance sheet. (So there's no need to trawl through every set of accounts to add all the years' losses together. It's done for you, so to speak).

Thanks for the clarification, Stephen. That's helpful. OK, these will be factors affecting the current as well then, but I suspect the core financial issues run deeper still. By the way, I heard years ago (before Morrison) that sponsors hadn't been contacted for renewal of advertising boards. It's difficult to know what's rumour/gossip and truth when you're an outsider but I heard stuff like that from different sources.

ICT's financial runaway train started long before the current incumbents. Up to 31 May 2022 (per company accounts on public record at Companies House which anyone can access/view free of charge), the accumulated losses incurred by ICT since formation total an eye-watering £6.7million. We have been a financial basketcase, living beyond our means for years, and years and years. The only reason we have stayed alive this long is a series of benefactors (Morrison being the latest) ploughing huge amounts of their own money knowing they'll never see it again. I couldn't believe it when I heard an ICT fan-contributor on Sportsound today blame battery farms and concerts for our financial woes and saying that we had not lost money from football operations ... Off the scale inaccurate.

Yes I thought his celebration on Friday was low key and assumed it was out of some measure of respect for a former club. The boos he seemed to get last night with every touch of the ball may have encouraged him somewhat to let himself go a bit more.

I decided to do that when I eventually got home as well. Yes, the poor defending didn't stop when Chalmers lost his man. If strikers are expected to "gamble" with a loose ball from the goalie (which May did so effectively), the defenders should show similar anticipation. Ball watching. Nevertheless, tremendous effort from the lads. Despite the jammy deflected second goal (which effectively killed the game), St J were much more ruthless and deserved the win.

Thanks for the response. I'm glad I posted the question.

Does anyone know where Roddy MacGregor has gone?

How about Ross Tokely ... a wee bit out of left field but ... has management/coaching experience, has the club close to his heart and always talks intelligently and passionately in commentary.

When we devalue our youth, we shoot ourselves in the foot. Below extract is from an article on Stuart Armstrong in Dundee's Courier today. Link to full article is below the quote. "When the family relocated from Inverness to the outskirts of Dundee, Campbell seized an opportunity that had fallen into his lap. “I was at Inverness before I came to United,” he said. “I spoke to Scott Kellacher (in charge of the Caley Thistle academy) about us having a look at Stuart and I took an instant like to him. Basically, I asked his dad straight away if he’d like to join us at United. “I’m not going to lie, I was a bit surprised that Inverness said we could have him for nothing. I thought it would be harder than that.” https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/1464488/dundee-united-stuart-armstrong-southampton-scotland/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I am a big fan of Welsh but, with his dreadful injury record, that choice would probably make Doran de facto captain.

I also was wondering about the away tops .. that's the timescale in the CEO's statement last weekend for them.

That happened to me last week ... in Elgin

Wonder if James Anderson regrets his hand-out to the clubs now. He should have kept it for his club, Hearts.